In my experience with the realm of education, the transition from high school to college has been emphasized in the most dramatic and kind of scary ways. When I graduated high school, I think I took the hardest aspects of college that I had heard and that guided my framework for how college was going to be. I was petrified that only three tests a semester would make my grade, and socially, I was worried that I would be surrounded by a bunch of alcoholics. But as is the case with most warnings, those tidbits of advice were over-generalizations. In the summer before my freshman year of college, I found myself more worrying about how to combat these over-generalizations I had received than to practically think about the life change I was about to embark on.
I think the most effective way to prepare our students for college is to teach them to recognize their passions. I wish I had gone into college knowing more about who I was and who I wanted to be, rather than worrying about the academic aspect or other people's social choices. If my teachers had helped me develop that confidence in myself, I don't think I would have been as worried as I was.
Yes, the academic rigor will probably increase in college, but I think, in most cases, that is one of the more minor changes. Why don't we prepare our students to stay true to who they are and on the path to who they want to be as they leave for this new stage of life?
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